mii, 



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NKW YORK CITY COUNCIL 



POLITICAL REFORM. 



REPORT 



COMPULSORY EDUCATION, 



i^j 



k 



DP:XTER a. HAWKINS, 



Dl-:CKMBEK 30, 1873. 



NEW YOPvK: 
E V E N' I N (i POST S T E A iM PRESSES, 

41 Nassau SruFKr. jorkk <.):■• 'I.ihiirtn'. 



1874. 

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fnm com/iiimenid 0/ Wexiet' od. (^aoi/'H^fynd'. 




CO 

^ Education perpetuates a Free State ; decreases pauperism 

and crime; and doubles the value of the citizen. 



y^ 



REPORT 

OF THE 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 

OF THE 

New M Cilj tali of lllid Piiii 

UPON 

COMPULSORY EDUCATION. 



lua Democratic Republic lil^e ours, where all political power 
resides in an.l springs from the people ; where, to use the 
language of Abraham Lincoln, " the government is of the people, 
for the people, and hy the people," no subject can be presented 
to the citizens for their consideration more important than the 
education of the j'outh. 

ITNIVEIISAL EDUCATION ESSENTLIL TO FREE GOVERNMENT, 

Intelligence in the rulers is essential to good government ; 
with us the rulers are the voters, hence the necessity of fitting 
them by education to rule. With intelligent voters, our form 
of government is the best yet devised ; but with ignorant voters, 
it is one of the worst. An intelligent people seek freedom, 
and an ignorant one despotism, just as naturally and certainly 
as the needle points to the magnetic pole. 

The founders of our free institutions two hundred and fifty 
years ago saw this, and scarcely had they completed the log 
cabins for their families, when they began the log school-house 
for the school and school-master. 

The school-house has spread, developed and improved from 
Maine to California equally with the dwellirig-house. It is the 
nursery of American citizens. 



2 

THREE CARDINAL PRINCIPLES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

These three cardinal principles our forefathers never lost 
sight of, viz., a free State, a free School, and a free Church. 
Self-preservation imposes upon our government the duty of 
educating the people sufficient!}^ to qualify them to exercise 
intelligently the right of suffrage. Conscious of this, every free 
State established a sj'-stem of free schools. 

So great and beneficent has been their influence upon the 
people, that the material prosperity, intellectual and moral 
development, respect for law and obedience to it, in each 
State, maj be relatively measured and calculated by the con- 
dition of the free public schools. 

WHAT THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT IS DOING POR EDUCATION. 

The National Government has already set aside for educa- 
tional purposes one hundred and forty millions (140,000,000) of 
acres of public land ; and the question of devoting to education 
the whole proceeds of the public lands still undisposed of, is dis- 
cussed. In the last Congress the Committee on Education and 
Labor in the House of Representatives, reported favorably a 
bill for this purpose, and after a careful debate and considera- 
tion, it passed that body and was sent to tlie Senate. It has 
established a Bureau of Education as a permanent part of 
the Government, with a Commissioner of Education at its head. 
His annual report is one of the most interesting, instructive, 
valuable and important documents that issues from the Govern- 
ment press. Ecerij legidaior and every scJiool officer in the 
United States should study its contents and heed its facts. 

MAGNITUDE OF THE SCHOOL INTEREST. 

(1.) — In the NcUion. 
We have in the United States over fourteen and a half mil- 
lions (14,500,000) of children of the school age ; we expend an- 
nually for schools over ninety-five millions (95,000,000) of dollars 
which is equal to one-third of one per cent, of the value of the 
property, real and personal, of the whole country, as returned 
by the last census; and we employ two hundred and twenty- 
one thousand (221,000) teachers. This is our standing army, 
find those are our raw recruits. Their arms are the pen and 



the slate pencil ; their munitions of war the text-books ; their 
forts and arsenals the school-houses ; and the enemy they are 
enlisted to conquer, ignorance and bigotr3\ Through the 
munificence of the Government, the finest building that springs 
up in every village in our ncAv States and Territories is the 
public school-house. Like the light of heaven and tlie water 
of the earth, it is open and free alike to rich and poor. 

{±)~-In (he Slale of New York. 

In the State of New York we have one million and a half 
(1,500,000) school children, twenty-eight thousand (28,000) 
school teachers, twelve thousand (12,000) school-houses, and 
one million (1,000,000) volumes of books in the school district 
liljraries. The school property of the State is Avorth twenty- 
seven millions of dollars ($27,000,000,) and we are expending 
two million dollars ($2,000,000) a year to add to it and improve 
it. The law in the State of Now York requires us to raise an- 
imally one and one-quarter of a mill tax upon each dollar of 
valuation of taxable property, for the support of the free 
schools. This amounts to two and a half millions of dollars. 
But so fully is the value of the schools appreciated that the 
people voluntarily tax themselves annually four times this 
amount, making the whole sum spent upon schools in this 
State ten milHons of dollars ($10,000,000) a year. 

This is called the " Empire State." So long as avc continue 
this liberal policy of education for the whole people it will re- 
main such. 

The canal interest, the railroad interest, the manufacturing 
interest, important as they are to material progress, are yet 
small compared with the education of our million and a half 
of youth. 

{?>.)~Jn flic Citij of New Yorl: 

The city of New York had, last year, over two hundred and 
thirty thousand (230,000) pupils in its schools. It employed 
three thousand (3,000) teachers and school officers, and ex- 
pended upon public education three millions three hundred 
thousand dollars ($3,300,000.) The citizen, however humble, 
has only to send his child to the public school, and Government 
furnishes him, there free of cost, an educational palace, warmed 



4 

and lighted, the best text-books and apparatus, and the most 
skillful teachers. 

Stewart and Astor, with their hundred millions of property 
and no children in the public schools, like true-hearted Ameri- 
can citizens, gladly pay the school taxes that educate the sons 
and daughters of thousands of poor laborers who have no 
property to be taxed. Aided by the free school, the greatest 
wealth and the highest honors and offices in this broad land 
are within the reach of the sons of the humblest workman. 

THE PROPERTY SHOULD EDUCATE THE CHILDREN. 

The American doctrine is, that " the property of the Slate shall 
educate the children of the Slate.'' This benefits equally the rich 
and the poor. It decreases crime, reduces taxes, improves labor, 
increases the value of property, and elevates the whole com- 
munity. One of the first and decisive questions asked in seek- 
ing a permanent location for one's family is ; What are the 
means provided for education ? A village, town or State, with 
good free schools, is the resort of families ; without them it is 
the home of criminals. 

In this city it costs more to support police and police courts 
to restrain and punish a few thousand criminals, nearly all of 
whom became such from want of education, than to educate 
our 230,000 children. 

CRIME THE CONSEQUENCE OF IGNORANCE. 

In France, from 1867 to 1869, one half the inhabitants could 
neither read nor write ; and this one-half furnished ninety-five 
per cent, of the persons arrested for crime, and eighty-seven 
per cent, of those convicted. In other words, an ignorant per- 
son, on the average, committed seven times the number of 
crimes that one not ignorant did. 

In the six New England States of our own country only seven 
per cent, of the inhabitants, above the age of ten years, can 
neither read nor write, yet eighty per cent, of the crime in those 
States is committed by this small minority ; in other words, a 
person there without education commits fifty-three times as 
many crimes as one with education. 

In New York and Pennsylvania an ignorant person commits 
on the average seven times the number of crimes that one who 
can read and write commits, and in the wdiole United States 



the illiterate person commits ten times the number of crimes 
that the educated one does. / 

The above facts are derived from official statistics. 

THE SCHOOL THE PREVENTIVE OF CRIME. 

We maj have supposed that it is the churches rather than 
the schools that prevent people from becoming criminals, but 
the facts indicated l)y statistics collected by government show 
the contrary. 

^ The kmgdom of Bavaria examined this question in 1870. In 
Upper Bavaria there were 15 churches and 5^ school-houses to 
each one thousand buildings, and 667 crimes to~eachone hundred 
thousand inJiabitants. In Upper Franconia the ratio was 5 
churches, 7 school-houses and 444 crimes. In Lower Bavaria 
the ratio was 10 churches and 4J school-houses and 870 crimes. 
In the Palatinate the ratio was 4 churches, 11 school-houses 
and only 425 crimes, or less than one-half. In the Lower Pala- 
tinate the ratio was 11 churches, 6 school-houses, and 690 
crimes, while in Lower Franconia the ratio was 5 churches, 10 
school-houses, and only 384 crimes. 

Tabulated for clearness of comparison, it is as follows : 



Upper Bavaria. . 
Ujiper Franconia. 
Lower Bavaria. . 
Tlic Palatinate . . 
Lower Palatinate. 
Lower Franconia. 



Per l,OtiO Buikiino-s. 



Churches. 



!Sfh..,)l 
Houses. 



Per lOO.OCO 
Souls. 



15 
5 

10 
4 

11 
5 



5i 
1 

11 

6 

10 



(rimes. 

667 
444 
870 
425 
690 
384 



In short, it seems that crime decreases almost in the same 
ratio that schools increase, while more or less churches seem 
in Bavaria to produce very little effect upon it. 

Those unerring guides of the statesman— statistics— demon- 
strate that the most economical, effective and powerful pre- 



ventive of crime is the free common scliool. IlDiversal educa- 
tion tends to universal morality. 

THE SCHOOL THE PEEVENTIVE OF PAUPERISM. 

"^fi^* An examination of the statistics of England, Scotland, Ire- 
land, and of the different countries of Europe, indicate that, 
other things being equal, pauperism is in the inverse ratio of 
the education of the mass of the people ; that is, as education 
increases, pauperism decreases, and as education decreases, 
pauperism increases. The same rule holds good in our country. 
Taking the three States of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois 
for illustration, we find that of the illiterate persons one in fen is 
a lyauper; while of the rest of the population only one. in three 
hundred is a pauper. In other words, a given number of per- 
sons suffered to grow up in ignorance furnish on the average 
thirtii times as many paupers as the same persons would if 
required to get such an education as our free public schools 
afford. Add to this that they furnish also ten times the wnnher 
of crimincds, and the right as well as the duty of Government, 
as the protector of society, to enforce general education is 
clear, for it is the plain obligation of Government to protect 
society against pauperism and crime. 

EDUCATION, THEN, SHOULD BE COMPULSORY. 

Government should prevent both crime and pauperism by 
extirpating the cause of each, to wit, ignorance. An educated 
citi^v'cn is of more value to himself, to society, and to the coun- 
try than an ignorant one. 

An examination covering prominent points or centres of 
labor in twenty States, made three years ago, developed the 
fact that even such education as our free common schools 
afford, adds on the average fifty per cent, to the producing 
capacity of the citizen ; while a higher training increases it two 
or three hundred per cent. 

He can do more and better work, from the street scavenger 
up to the most skilled mechanic, with the same expenditure of 
time and force, from the mere fact of possessing knoAvledge. 

A well-educatecl commonwealth, however narrow its borders 
or poor its soil, soon becomes rich and powerful ; while an 
ignorant one, even under the happiest circumstances of land 
and sky, falls a prey to anarchy, poverty and despotism. 



+ 



Government is making ample provision for the secular 
education of all. Has it not a right, then, io require all to he 
educated, either in the public schools at public expense, or in 
private schools at private expense? We think it has, and that 
secular education sufficient for the common affairs of every-day 
life, and to enable the citizen to vote with intelligence, should 
be compulsory. 

Prussia and many other German States have tried it for 
years, with the happiest results. It is her vigorous system of 
compulsory education that in sixty years has raised her from a 
bankrupt and conquered petty kingdom to the ruling empire 
of Europe, and made her the seat and home of intelligence, 
industry and wealth. Boston has had such a law for twenty 
years, and in the last ten they have reduced truancy froin 
school sixty per cent. New Hampshire, Connecticut, Khode 
Island and Michigan have now adopted it. England has given 
her school boards power to adopt it, and in London they have. 
The effect is to increase the attendance at school, and decrease 
the number of juvenile delinquents. The time has arrived 
to try the experiment in the cities of our State at least, if not 
in the whole State. This will cause every child to enjoy the 
benefits of the public school, or of some private school. 

Wherever compulsory attendance has been tried long 
enough to determine its effect, the result has been so satisfac- 
tory that it has become a fixed and settled policy. Prussia, 
Saxony and Democratic Switzerland testify to its excellence. 
It is in harmony with the true spirit of a Democratic Rapub- 
lic to require every citizen to qualify himself for the right of 
suffrage and for earning an independent living. 

The taxpayers who furnish the money to educate all the 
people have a right to require thai all shall he educated, in order 
that crime and pauperism, and the public burdens caused by 
the same may be reduced to a minimum, and the ballot wield- 
ed only by intelligent voters. 

The ballot, in the hands of a corru[)t and ignorant populace, 
is the torch of the political incendiary ; but with an intelli- 
gent people is the bulwark of libert}'. H^-4-"-^ ^ jLi^"^ 

" An ounce of preventive is worth a pound of cure." It costs 
far less to prevent crime, paupciism and civil commotions, by 



il 



^ 



educating the whole people, than it does to punish criminals, 
support paupers and maintain armies to repress an ignorant 
and vicious population. 

The average daily attendance in this State upon the public 
schools during the school year is only about one-third of the 
vi^hole school population; and upon all schools, public and pri- 
vate, it is only about one-half. 

The class most in need of school training seldom attend 
school at all, to wit, those whose parents, through ignorance, 
poverty, avarice or crime, give them little or no home education. 
This class can be reached only by the aid of a compulsory and 
searching statute. Every other remedy has been tried Avithout 
curing the disease. 

By a judicious law, firmly but kindly enforced, compelling at- 
tendance during school hours upon some school, either public 
or private, the streets of our large cities could be cleared of the 
thousands of youthful vagrants from whose ranks now our army 
of criminals is almost entirely recruited. Such a law in a sin- 
gle generation would work a moral and intellectual reformation 
and regeneration of our ci'iminal and pauper classes, and save 
millions of money in the departments of police, charities and 
corrections, and largely increase the wealth, influence and pro- 
ducing power of the State. 

The wisdom of developing and perfecting our free schools is 
admitted by the great majority of the community. A small 
minority oppose them on the ground that their religion is not 
specially and authoritatively taught therein. 

OUR GOVERNBIENT CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT TEACH RELIGION. 

Oar Government cannot give religious education ; because 
while protecting each citizen in the undisturbed enjo3auent of 
his own religion, as a sacred matter between him and his Maker, 
and thus tolerating all religions, it has none of its own and can- 
not favor any sect or domination or class. 

The whole letter and spirit of the constitution of the United 
States as well as of the several States, prohibits the establish- 
ment either directly or indirectly of a State Religion : or the 
showing any favor or giving any protection, privileges, or finan- 
cial support to one religious sect more than to another. Pro- 



9 

tecfion to allequcdJy,hut suppovl io none, h on this point, flic organic 
law of America. 

If tlie Churches would not interfere with the Government's 
secuhar education, but woukl devote the whole of their strengtli 
to giving, in their own places and manner, religious education, 
they and the Government, though working in different spheres 
and in different buildings, would act in entire harmony, and 
would in the end produce the best possible general result. 
By simply protecting religion, but not teaching it, Government 
is, as matter of fact, giving the utmost genuine vitality and 
strength to the religious element 



BUT ONE SECT OPPOSED TO FREE SCHOOLS. 

This American doctrine of free non-sectarian schools is sub- 
stantially accepted and adopted by all religious sects save one. 
That one, however, is large, enthusiastic, well drilled and ably 
and powerfully led ; and though its members are chiefl3' of 
foreign birth, yet, having become citizens, they are entitled to 
the same voice and rights and privileges as natives are in this 
matter. The leader of this sect, though a foreign ruler, has 
ordered the destruction of our free non-sectarian system of 
popular education, and the substitution of his own system of 
church or parochial schools, that is schools whose text-books 
and teachers are selected, appointed and controlled by the 
Church, though the State may be permitted to pay all the bills. 
In the city of New York, through State and municipal legisla- 
tion, the following amounts of money were obtained in the last 
five years from the public treasury for sectarian institutions, 
such as churches, church schools, and church charities, viz. : 

1869 $7G7,815 of which this one sect received |G51,19l 

1870 861,326 " " " 711,436 

1871 634,088 " " " " 552,718 

1872 419,849 " "' " 252,110 

1873 324,284 " " " 306,193 



Total 5 yrs. $3,017,362 " " " $2,473,648 

If this is a better system than ours, we should adopt it, for 
we want the best ; but if it is a worse, we should reject it. 



10 



THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM PEODUCES MORE ILLITERATES) PAUPERS 
AND CRIMINALS THAN OURS. 

It has been tried for centuries ; and in some countries, as 
Italy and Spain, under the most favorable auspices, for there 
this sect has had despotic power, both civil and religious, and 
so could carry its system out to its highest perfection. 

What, then, are its fruits? We may say, its necessary and 
inevitable fruits ? By its fruits it should be judged. They are 
as follows : 

(1.) A highly educated few ; but among the masses general 
ignorance, instead of general enlightenment. 

(2.) A low grade of morality. 

(3.) A large pauper and criminal class. 

(4.) A tendency to despotism and to official selfishness and 
corruption. 

(5.) A lack of national progress and development. 

These statements are made, first from a personal knowledge 
of the facts gained by investigation in those countries — having 
visited them before they rejected that system, for the purpose 
of studying this very question ; and secondly, they are made 
from a careful analysis of official statistics. 

The fruits of the two systems also exist side by side in our 
own country. 

There are with us five and a half millions of foreign-born 
inhabitants, the greater portion of whom came from' cour tries 
as Ireland and England for example, that have had the paro- 
chial or church system of schools ; hence they may justly be 
taken intelleducdly and moralli/ as the fair average product of 
that method of education. 

Of these the iUiterahs above the age of ten, are fourteen per 
cent. (.14) of the whole number; the jxtiipers are four and one 
tenth per cent. (041), and the criminals one and six-tenths 
per cent. (.016.) 

While on the other hand, in the twenty-one of our States 
having the American system of non-sectarian free public schools 
there is a native population of twenty miUions. This native 
population has been educated in this system of schools, and in 



11 

like manuer ma.}' l)e Justly taken, infcUcciuaJJjj and moralhj, as the 
fair average product of tliis metliod of education. 

Of these, the illiterates above the age of ten are only three 
and one-half per cent. (.035) of the whole number ; the paupers 
only one and seven-tenths per cent. (.017), and the criminals 
only three-fouiths of one per cent. (.0075). 

In other words, from every ten thousand (10,000) inhabitants 
the parochial or church system of education turns out fourteen 
hundred (1,400) illiterates, four hundred and ten (-110) paupers, 
and one hundred and sixty (IGO) criminals ; while the non- 
sectarian free public school system turns out only three hun- 
dred and fifty (350) illiterates, one hundred and seventy (170) 
paupers, and seventy-five (75) criminals. Or if we take Massa- 
chusetts by itself, which has the type or model of our free 
public school system, with its 1,104,032 native inhabitants, the 
number is still less, viz., seventy one (71) illiterates, forty-nine 
(49) paupers, and eleven (11) criminals. 

Illiierates. P.uipevs. Criiuiuals. Inliabitauts. 

Parochial .suliool system 1 .100 -1 1 1 CO to tlu; 10,000 

Public school sj'stein in '.il States :!riO ITn T.") " 10,000 

Public school system in Massachusetts. 71 '!'•• 11 " lo/xnj 

That is, we arc asked by these friends wlio have come here 
and joined us, and whose zeal and energj^ if rightly directed, 
will be of great service both to themselves and the country, to 
abolish our own well-tried system of education and adopt the 
one to which they, hi their former homes, became accustomed, 
though that one, on the average, produces four times as many 
illiterates, tivo and a half times as many paupers, and more 
than tivice as many criminals as ours. Or if we take Massa- 
chusetts as a fair sample of our system, we are asked to adopt 
one that Will give society twenty times as many illiterates, eicjld 
times as many paupers, i\.\\<{ fonrteen times as many criminals. 

We cannot do this, and when they come to understand 
thoroughly the facts they will not Avish us to do it ; for the 
AN'elfare of their children is just as dear to them as that of ours 
is to us, and they, equally with us, desire to diminish ignor- 
ance, pauperism and crime, and to make the country of their 
adoption and the home of their descendants intelligent, pros- 
perous, powerful and happy. 



The whole future of our country and the very existence of 
our free government is wrapped up in the common schooL 
Promote and develope that, and every department of industry 
and intelhgence will flourish like a tree well watered and 
nourished at its roots. Destroy the common school, and ignor- 
ance, poverty, despotism and bigotry will soon pervade the 
whole land. 

Generalizations drawn like the above from the official 
statistics of twenty-five millions of people are unerring guides. 
They settle the question as to the comparative excellence of 
the two systems of education. They are intellectual, industrial 
and moral beacons, that direct with certainty and safety the 
statesman and the philanthropist. They point out unmisfaJmUy 
to the lecjislator the duty of enacting a law requiring attendance 
upon schools, during the school age and the school terms, of all the 
children in the State, unless legally and for good and sufficient 
reasons temporarily excused. 

The preservation of free government requires this. Protec- 
tion of society against pauperism and crime demand it. The 
material developement of our country calls for it. The success 
and happiness in life of the children of the poor, the ignorant 
and the vicious can be secured only by such a statute. 

Your committee recommend the passage of the following 
resolution : 

Resolved, That the Legislature should enact a law authoriz- 
ing and empowering the school boards in each city, town and 
incorporated village to require the attendance at some school, 
public or private, during the school terms and the school hours 
of each day, of all children between the ages of eight and 
fifteen years, unless for good and sufficient reason temporarily 
excused. 

New York Dec. 30, 1873. 

DEXTEE A. HAWKINS, 

Clialrman of Committee on Education of the New York City 
Council of Political Reform. 



13 

At a meeting of the Council, held at their rooms, No. 48 
East Tweuty-third street, on December 30, 1873, the foregoing 
Report and Resolution were accepted, adopted and ordered 
printed, and the thanks of the Council were presented to the 
Chairman of the Committee. 

H. N. BEERS, 

Secretary of the New Yorlv Council of rolitical Keforin. 



s of llie Iw Iiiii Cilf Coiiiifil III' l\iliiiriil lidiiriii, 



WM. H. NEILSOX, Preddent. 
THEODORE W. DWIGHT, Vice-Prcshknf. 



A. R. Wetmore, 
Wm. F. Havemeyer, 
D. Willis James, 
Henry Nicoll, 
Dexter A. Hawkins, 
Alfred C. Post, M. D. 
John Stephenson, 
Thomas C. Acton, 
John Falconer, 
J. C. Havemeyer, 
Robert Hoe, 
Geo. Hencken, Jr., 
s. d. moulton, 
Jackson S. Schvltz, 
-John P. Crosby, 
Joseph C. Jackson, 
C. E. Detmold, 
Frederick Schack, 
Charles Watrous, 
Julius W. Tiemann, 
John R. Voorhis, 
Joseph B. Varnum, 



H, N, BEERS, Secretari/. 



D0RM.\N B. Eato.n, 

James Emott, 

Henry J. Scudder, 

D. D. Wright, 

Hugh Taylor, 

S. B. H. Vance, 

Thos. L. Thornell, 

Hiram Merritt, 

J. C. Sanders, 

Wm. Gardner, 

Wright Gillies, 

Alonzo J. Chadsey, M. D. 

j. p. huggins, 

Phillip Bissinger, 

Jonathan Sturges, 

Geo. W. Lane, 

Henry Tice, 

Henry Clausen, Jr., 

Allen Hay, 

Edward Salomon, 

B. B. Sherman, 

Joseph H. Choate. 

HENRY CLEWS, Treasurer. 



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